The Rest of Our Lives
by wazlib88
Summary: Ron has finally asked the question. Hermione answers by planning. An outtake from the sixteenth chapter of "Firsts and Lasts."


A/N: Hello! I promise I'm working on the next chapter of Firsts and Lasts, but being back at school has unfortunately made me pretty busy. However, I do have a little "deleted scene" that I thought I'd share. It doesn't really fit anywhere else, but it's short, sweet, and fluffy, so I thought some readers might be interested. :) Fair warning, though: it's only lightly edited, so it's probably a little rough.

I will say this in the Chapter 17 author's note as well (because I can't say it enough, seriously), but thank you very, very much for the response to the engagement chapter of FAL...you are all brilliantly wonderful people. Lots of internet love up in here.

Disclaimer: Ron and Hermione are JKR's creations. I'm sure she never intended for me to become obsessed with them.

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Hermione was quite certain that she'd never been so happy in all her life. She was lying next to her handsome, loving, and very naked fiancée in _their_ bed. Ron was on his stomach next to her, his face buried in her neck and his long arm wrapped around her own bare figure, stroking her side lightly. Hermione's left hand was in his hair, and she could just see the diamond ring he'd presented her with not four hours ago sparkling in the dim light. She could also see Ron's arse quite clearly from her current vantage point, which was a huge advantage in itself.

Sighing contentedly, Hermione briefly wondered if life really got any better. Well, she supposed it could; her father could be out of the hospital, but that would happen in due time. Life would never be perfect, anyway, but this was about as close as it had ever been. Ron was her fiancé. She was Ron's fiancée. Finally, _finally_, they were getting married.

"I love you," she whispered, running her hand slowly through his slightly damp hair. Hermione felt her cheeks flush even more than they already were. They'd really worked up a sweat in the past couple of hours, hadn't they?

"Love you too," came Ron's muffled voice from somewhere in her hair. He slid his big hand off her waist and across her stomach, taking a brief detour upward to cup one of her breasts playfully. He rolled onto his side, and Hermione shifted as well so that they were facing each other, their smiling faces only inches apart.

"So when do you want to get married?" Ron asked cheekily after a moment's silence. "I've got a busy week coming up, but maybe I could squeeze you in between shifts."

Hermione rolled her eyes in response. "If only it were that easy."

"It could be," Ron pointed out doubtfully. "We could always elope."

"No, we couldn't," Hermione replied simply, and Ron nodded in agreement. "I think we should have a summer wedding," she continued, "but early summer, before it gets too warm."

"Yeah, I like that," Ron said, his smile growing. "I like June. That's a good month."

Hermione bit her lip, considering. "Yes, I like June too. The only problem is that we'll have to wait nearly fifteen months then, as there's no way we can pull a wedding together in three."

"We could try," Ron protested half-heartedly, though there was already a look of resignation in his eyes.

"And fail miserably," Hermione retorted, reaching out to take one of his hands in hers when she saw his face fall - the change was almost imperceptible, but she'd learned to read him better than any of her books. She could tell that some part of him just wanted to make it simple and get it done as soon as possible, but she also knew that they both wanted to have an ideal wedding - not too big or elaborate, but not hastily thrown together in less than a hundred days.

"I'm okay with waiting, if that's what you want," Ron said softly, squeezing her hand in return before wrapping his arms back around her body. "It'll be worth it, yeah?"

"Of course it will," Hermione replied as she snuggled further into him. "This is the rest of our lives we're talking about."

Ron was quiet for a moment, but Hermione could feel his smile as he placed a light kiss on her forehead. "Yeah, I suppose it is," he said tenderly.

They settled into a comfortable silence then, each lost in their own thoughts. Every so often, Hermione would sneak a glance to her left hand, which was trapped between Ron's chest and her own; it was a tangible reminder that this was real. He had asked her to marry him, and she had said yes. They were getting married next June. It wasn't just something that would happen someday anymore; someday was now just fifteen months away.

To be totally honest, Hermione had been planning on marrying Ron for quite some time. Since the first time she kissed him, really. She couldn't even begin to imagine being with anyone else. Hermione wasn't good at letting people in, because she had never thought that people would like what they would find. But Ron had seen everything, and somehow he'd decided she was worth sticking around for. It had taken her awhile to get used to the fact that the boy she'd been in love with since she was about fifteen loved her back, but there hadn't been a doubt in her mind that things between herself and Ron were exactly as they were supposed to be.

Although she was a natural born planner, Hermione had always forced herself not to think about her future with Ron in too much detail. She had told herself that things would unfold as they were supposed to, whether she'd planned it that way or not. The past suggested that this was the right way to go about it; the events that had transpired before they'd admitted their feelings had not been ideal, but looking back, she was quite certain it couldn't have happened any other way. They had to go through everything they did in order to get where they were today, and she certainly wouldn't change a thing about the people they had become. So, she drove all the daydreams to the back of her mind and instead focused on the moments as they happened. Of course, she let her mind wander occasionally, but generally she did a good job of keeping her mind in the present.

But now, she supposed, now she could think about it all she wanted, because it was really happening. Ron had asked her to marry him, and it had been better than anything she could have dreamed up because it had come straight from him. And now, it was official: they would be married early next summer. They hadn't talked about it yet, of course, but she assumed it would happen at the Burrow, just as all his siblings' weddings had. The ceremony could start later in the afternoon, so that the sun would be setting just as they shared their first dance. She would have to go dress shopping with Mum, of course, to find the perfect gown - nothing too fancy, but a little lace wouldn't hurt. And Ron would look dashingly handsome, of course - maybe she could even persuade him to wear a muggle suit instead of dress robes; _that_ would certainly be easy on the eyes...

They would go somewhere warm on their honeymoon, of course, but someplace with a lot of history as well. Maybe France, though Hermione had been there many times...or Italy, even. Yes, Italy might be nice, she hadn't been there in ages. Perhaps, if they could both manage to take the time off work, they could split their time - a week of simply lying on the beach all day and enjoying each other's company all night, then a week to see the sights. Then they'd come back here, to the flat that was _theirs_ now, but not forever. No, once they'd had time to save a bit, they could find a proper house in a nice neighborhood, though nowhere too crowded, of course. Then in a few years, they'd have to find a way to fill the house...

A sudden realization stopped Hermione's thought process entirely. Her eyes, which she hadn't remembered closing, fluttered open. This was something they hadn't talked about; how could they not have talked about this? What if they were on completely different pages? "Ron?" she whispered frantically, hoping wildly that he wasn't asleep.

"Hmm?" came Ron's sleepy voice from somewhere above her head.

"How many children do you want to have?" Hermione blurted out before she could think better of it, pulling away from him just enough so that she could look up at his face properly.

"Erm..." Ron blinked a few times, clearly confused by her question. Hermione panicked; of course now wasn't the time for this conversation! How could she be so irrational? They'd made the biggest decision of their lives tonight, and here she was pressuring him to make another. She was about to tell him to forget she'd asked when he answered, "I dunno. Two or three, maybe? Not too many; I can tell you from experience that hand-me-downs aren't any fun."

Hermione immediately breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't sure what she'd expected him to say; some small part of her may have believed that he wouldn't want kids, while another part of her had half-expected him to say he wanted to have no less than eight. Regardless, his answer was far better.

"Is that okay?" Ron asked uncertainly when she didn't respond. "I mean, we can just have one if that's what you want. Or more, too, but I guess I'd prefer less than seven. Though if you really want that many, that's okay too; I mean, they're our kids, I'll love 'em no matter what, you know-"

"Ron," Hermione laughed, bringing a finger to his lips to silence him. "Two or three sounds perfect."

"Brilliant," Ron said, breathing his own sigh of relief. "Boys or girls, do you reckon?"

"Either one," Hermione answered, snuggling back into him again. "Though it might be nice to have one of each, don't you think?"

"Yeah, that'd be cool," Ron replied contentedly.

"I think we ought to wait a couple years, though," Hermione told him matter-of-factly. "We'll have to save for a house and such."

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "And I'll have to be in a position to take a desk job, which will probably take another few years anyway."

"You don't have to-," Hermione began to protest, but Ron cut her off as soon as she began.

"Yeah, I do. My job's always gonna be dangerous, but if we're starting a family I want to be on the field as little as possible. I promised I wouldn't leave you, yeah?"

"Okay," Hermione answered, wondering how on Earth she'd been lucky enough to fall in love with such a wonderful man. She pulled back again, this time to kiss him soundly on the mouth. "Thank you, Ron."

"For what?" he asked, tugging fondly on one of her unruly curls.

"For asking me to marry you," she replied, even though she knew it was a silly thing to say.

Ron quirked an eyebrow up, but didn't take the mickey out of her as she'd expected. "Thank you for saying yes," he said instead.

"I was always going to say yes," Hermione said contentedly, pressing one more quick kiss to his lips.

"And I was always going to ask, so I s'pose there's no surprises here," Ron quipped. "But it's nice to have it set in stone, yeah?"

"Yes, and in a very pretty one at that," Hermione replied, her eyes flashing to her ring again.

Ron rolled his eyes at her joke. "_You're_ a very pretty one, at that."

"I'm a pretty stone?"

"You know what I mean. Take the compliment."

"You're pretty, too."

"I haven't even got the energy to argue," Ron said, rolling his eyes again. "You wore me out, woman."

"Some of our best performances, I'd say," Hermione replied cheekily as she turned away from him so that she could settle into a comfortable sleeping position.

"That's saying something, I suppose. We're quite good at this," Ron said as he, always willing to be the big spoon, wrapped an arm around her.

"We're perfect," Hermione sighed contentedly, lacing her fingers through his. "Good night, love."

"Good night, beautiful."

A smile spread across both their faces then; though really, they hadn't stopped smiling since the moment Ron had pulled out the ring on that damp street outside the hospital. Hermione's last thought before she drifted off to sleep was just how incredible it was that she would be able to fall asleep in this man's arms for the rest of her life.

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A/N: Like I said, simply an outtake that didn't make it in anywhere else. Nothing to see here but some pointless and mediocre fluff, but I figured another 2,000 words of WE'RE GETTING MARRIED goodness never hurt anyone. The next chapter of Firsts and Lasts will make an appearance by this weekend, hopefully - but I can't make any promises yet, unfortunately. It, too, will be fluffy, but in a much different way than the last couple have been. :) Thank you for reading!


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